DETROIT -- Far be it from Nick Lidstrom to get mad and yell at the referees but you wouldn't have blamed him if he did Wednesday night.
The Los Angeles Kings were on the power play and Lidstrom was trying to clear the puck out of his own zone when Michal Handzus' stick came up and hit Lidstrom in the mouth.
The puck stayed in and found its way in the back of the net off of the stick of Dustin Brown, who was in front of the net. The goal, Brown's 22nd, ended up being the game-winner in the Kings' 2-1 victory.
Darren Helm scored the Wings' only goal in the first period, giving him 10 for the season. He is one of 11 Wings with 10 or more goals.
The Wings are now winless in their last four games (0-2-2), but it's a little too soon to sound the alarm.
Lidstrom, who had to get stitches on the inside of his lower lip, said he asked the referees why there was no call.
"There are four guys out there and you're asking and no one saw it," Lidstrom said. "I guess there's nothing you can do about it when they say they can't see it."
Coach Mike Babcock was philosophical about the inexplicable non-call.
"It was a high stick, so my take is it should have been a penalty," Babcock said. "But it wasn't a penalty. Four guys on the ice missed it, those things happen. It's unfortunate because obviously, if it's a penalty it's a waved-off goal, it's a big play in the game. That's life."
Life has been difficult for the Wings of late.
They haven't won since their 7-4 victory in Los Angeles Feb. 28 and haven't won at home since beating the Boston Bruins on national TV Feb. 13, a 4-2 win.
The Wings are now 7-10-2 in their last 19 at home, not quite up to their lofty standards.
"Certainly our record speaks for itself, we haven't been as good as we need to be," Danny Cleary told FOX Sports West during the second intermission. "Thank God we play well on the road. But yeah, I don't know, I think there's a number of reasons. Maybe we try to play a little too cute sometimes and it gets us in trouble."
Most of the Wings credited Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick, who lived up to his name with 28 saves in his 29th victory.
"I thought we played a great game, I thought that was our best 60 minutes in a long time," said Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard, who had 24 saves. "The effort was definitely there, it was just Quickie made three great saves, especially two there in the second."
The bloodied captain agreed.
"I thought he played real well for them, especially in the third when we had some chances, we were going after them," Lidstrom said. "He made some good saves, too, late in the game for them."
Niklas Kronwall, who was robbed by Quick on a good chance in the second, said while Quick is certainly a great goaltender, the Wings weren't too hard on him.
"I think a lot of times we didn't have enough traffic," Kronwall said. "He saw the puck and whenever he sees the puck, he's going to make the save. That's how good he is."
Babcock, who was upset with his team after giving up a 4-1 lead in Phoenix, was not displeased with the effort Wednesday.
"I thought we were fine," he said. "I thought we came at them and yet in saying all that, they got a good team, too. They got good lines and I thought they played well. I thought (Drew) Doughty was really good for them on the back end, skated the puck out of trouble and got them out of trouble. I thought Quick was real good and (Jarrett) Stoll was real good in the face-off circle that kept our possession at times away from us. I thought he was a key player in tonight's game, too."
Stoll won 12 of 16 face-offs, which helped account for the Kings' winning 60 percent of their face-offs.
Had the Wings not collapsed in Phoenix Saturday night, probably no one would be worried about losing to a team fighting to stay in the playoff race. The Kings came into the game a desperate team hanging on to the eighth spot in the Western Conference.
Now if they lose at home Friday against Edmonton, the worst team in the league with 54 points, then maybe you can get that panic button ready.
